Y. Shavit et K. Westerbeek, EDUCATIONAL STRATIFICATION IN ITALY - REFORMS, EXPANSION, AND EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY, European sociological review, 14(1), 1998, pp. 33-47
Between the 1950s and early 1980s, Italian education expanded rapidly.
During the 1960s the educational system was reformed in two important
respects. First, in 1963, the unified middle school was established a
nd compulsory schooling was extended to the age of 14. Second, in 1961
and 1969 access to universities was progressively liberalized, enabli
ng students in all upper-secondary tracks, including the vocational co
lleges (istituti professionali) attended primarily by the working clas
ses, to sit for the matriculation (maturita) examinations and to conti
nue to university. The reform was expected to reduce class inequality
in university attendance by raising the chances of working-class stude
nts participating in this level of education, Previous research howeve
r (Cobalti and Schizzerotto, 1993, 1994) found little change in class
inequalities in educational attainment. Using their data, we re-evalua
te Cobalti and Schizzerotto's conclusions, and find declining effects
of father's education on the odds of completing the lower levels of th
e educational hierarchy. The declining effects carried-over slightly t
o the (unconditional) odds of obtaining the maturit(6) diploma but did
not contribute to equalization of the odds of university attendance.
We consider the extent to which the reforms affected these changes and
also study changes in gender and regional inequality of educational o
pportunity.